The longtime philanthropist and Adirondack Park land owner died Monday at Saratoga Hospital
By Wendy Liberatore, Times Union, and Adirondack Explorer
Philanthropist, horse racing enthusiast and significant Adirondack Park property owner John Hendrickson died at Saratoga Hospital on Monday afternoon, a close friend of the family confirmed.
The 59-year-old reported feeling unwell just before lunch at Cady Hill, the Saratoga Springs home he had shared with his late wife, socialite Marylou Whitney.
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“I was at the hospital holding his hand,” said Maureen Lewi. “I was talking to him, but he wouldn’t talk back — he was gone.”
Lewi said Hendrickson was “the best husband to Marylou, he was the best of friends to Ed” — Lewi’s late husband, the prominent publicist Ed Lewi, who died in 2015 — “and he was the best to the backstretch workers. All his waking hours, he was thinking about how he could give to others.”
After his wife’s death in 2019 at age 93, Hendrickson worked to develop a health clinic for track workers, as well as serving meals and providing entertainment for the employees throughout the Saratoga Race Course meet.
In addition to the clinic, Hendrickson also paid to revamp the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, where he served as chairman beginning in 2017.
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Hendrickson has been trying to sell his late wife’s properties — in part, he would say, because they were no longer places of fun without her.
Among choice Adirondack properties he has been trying to sell: the former summer residence called “Camp on a Point” on Little Tupper Lake in Hamilton County. On 58 acres of land, the five-bedroom and four-bath home was listed for $5.25 million.
Hendrickson also listed the 36,000-acre Whitney estate near Long Lake. The price sought in 2020 was $180 million.
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